Wild Weather in 2012: London

2012, a chaotic year of extreme weather.

Flood warnings, gusts of more than 100 mph. It is grim. It is a real

Washouts and win storms, torrents and tornadoes, we will explore what

happened. My colleague will examine why it happened and we will

experience the first hand effect of people across the West.

From drought to deluge, not to mention the wettest June in 100

years, whatever happened to the weather in 2012? And what has been

Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo. A highlight of their

West End production at the drop of a hat -- blockbuster At The Drop Of

A Hat was a song of the weather. It was written in the 19 50s, and

their lyrics are very close to this year's weather. # Farmers fear

unkindly May, frost by night and At the start of the year, the river

here in Chew Stoke was already very high indeed. On 3rd January, we had

a very big there is cold front coming in from the West, and the

river became so high so quickly that a car or got swept right down

the river and stood down there. Like many others, this river has

flooded repeatedly over the year. At the end of November, a car was

washed downstream, sadly this time Most weather fronts that kind of

the region have been swept in by the prevailing wind, a westerly

wind. That is what we have here today on the Bristol Channel coast,

and the wind from the West is being funnelled up through their high

ground. Those stratocumulus clouds are

formed from the moisture being carried in from the Atlantic, and

with them came like showers, not that there was much of the wet

stuff in March in her ear of topsy- turvy weather.

-- in this year. Highlights tonight, we need the rain. And farmers are

worried there could be crop failures. The unseasonal dry

weather was due to an area of dry pressure building up at the wrong

time of year. Normally a weather system like this is expected in

July. And just when we needed a good shower, the rainy weather

fronts were deflected away. south-west is heading towards

drought conditions. River levels are running so low that fish may

die unless we get significant rain. No sooner were hosepipe bans,

headline news across the country, than the heavens opened. But

instead of showers, we got the wettest April since records began,

with over twice the normal rainfall. And it did not stop there.

One part of the region that has been badly affected by the rain has

Criss-crossed by a man made drainage ditches channelling water

into the Rivers Parrett, Axe and Brue, the Somerset Levels and Moors

are large flood plain. Flood plains flood, the clue is in the name.

Winter flooding on the Somerset Levels and Moors is not unusual.

What has been unusual is the extent and frequency of summertime

flooding, and it has been troublesome to local farmers.

Today it looks dry, but large parts of Curry Moor have been under water

for two thirds of this year. The water table across here is

exceptionally high, that is a consequence of the wet summer, and

it would not take that much extra rain to threaten some of the area

with further flooding. Indeed, in early November, the Environment

Agency issued a warning that the south-west region is at the edge of

further flooding through the course of the winter. With that in mind,

they have been working with local councils, conservationists and

local farmers to try to find a way forward to reduce the threat of

further flooding. When the floods came, how high was

the water? We would have had water well over our heads. If this is the

way the weather is going to be, the water that comes in here needs to

be got at more quickly. We have been talking about the Environment

Agency about getting work done to get the river to take more what.

There is a range of options being considered. Dredging rivers,

digging or drainage channels or even managing the area differently

by reducing the amount of intensively farmed land.

The recovery here is going to be a minimum of three years, for it to

dissipate. Ecologists have been out and looked and given information

and they reckon that three years is the minimum. Speaking to you brings

home the legacy of one heavier rain event which can last hours and

weeks, but months or even years. Absolutely.

A # June just rains and never stops, 30 days and spoils the crops. # In

July the sun is hot, is it shining? Not, it's not! #

the sea was so bad because it was coming up to springtime, and

coupled with a strong gale, it is a lethal combination.

We would normally expect this in October or November. It is not

something I have ever witnessed in the eight years I have been here.

Clevedon was also swept up in perhaps the region's most bizarre

weather story this year. Edney introduce you to an important

concept in the localised weather patterns here. This is something

called convergence. It is where we have winds converging, and they

ultimately have to go upwards, the sea breezes groat -- blowing in one

direction, and coming from another direction from Somerset, and where

they meet, up go the clouds. Where these winds come together we start

to introduce a bit of spin, a vortex in the atmosphere, and now

you are starting to get into the area where funnel clouds might

develop. If a final cloud touches the ground, it becomes by

definition at a neighbour. That is exactly what we believe happened it

Clevedon. -- it cleaved and. I saw a Tornado over the sea to

start with, perfectly-formed. It then changed shape and created a

dust cloud in front of it. It hit the wall behind me and dispersed.

Clevedon's tornado tore up the beach. Meanwhile, that same day, 24

miles up the estuary, sea weed rained down on Berkeley.

Autumn's rain was at least expected, it has been the volume that has

totally unexpected -- was totally unexpected, resulting in extensive

flooding. November saw swathes of Wiltshire, the Severn Valley and

the Somerset Levels underwater yet again.

Freezing December yet again, then Many people come to their local

airport to escape the weather, but To provide an accurate weather

forecast, I need timely and accurate weather information, and I

get that from weather stations across the West Country. Just ahead

of doing a weather forecast, I check the one from here at Bristol

airport. Open as are the at Lulsgate Bottom

in 1942, Bristol airport is on top of the hill. -- opened as RAF

Lulsgate Bottom. Modern airports and modern aircraft

have all manner of sophisticated equipment designed to operate in

all types of weathers, which is just as well. But ironically enough,

this particular report was originally billed as an RAF base to

train pilots to fly in bad weather. And whatever the weather, a pilot

need to know the exact conditions. The rainfall, visibility, wind

speed and direction. Some of the equipment for measuring whether

that be aboard Macy in low-tech, for example the windsock. -- at the

airport may seem low-tech. It also gives some idea as to how

strong the windows. They also use that added, the anemometer, which

sends data straight to the control tower. These bollards are runway

visual range, which give the visibility up and down the runway.

There is a set here, another in the middle, and another at the far end

of the runway, so they know the visibility along the length of the

runway itself. All this data ins appear in the

control tower, sitting 29 metres, 100 ft, above the runway. They do

not just see the plane safely and out, they keep a watchful eye on

the ever-changing weather. I would imagine you can see right

the way down to limit, on a clear day. Yes, you can see the City of

Bristol, and the City of Bath over So, tell me about how you go about

whether it -- collecting weather information here. The observations

are done manually, at 10 minutes to and 20 minutes past the hours.

The weather is broadcaster pilots of a 32nd is. This is the automatic

terminal Information Service, or Visibility, 10 kilometres or more.

So I am going to have to tune in to bat from eyewear the desk. Useful

information. It tells us that the wind was due Westerleigh, and the

visibility is good. -- the wind was due west. The pilot will be able to

receive that information from anything up to 150 miles will way.

The information provided by the weather equipment is not only

essential to help the pilots take off and land safely, but it is part

of a wider network of weather stations situated nationally and

internationally, and we can start to study patterns based on the

information they provide. These patterns are suggesting that the

climate is altering. For a wider look at the causes of this year's

weird weather, here is my colleague Nick Miller.

In the spring of 2012, England was dry, or reservoirs were dangerously

low, much of the country was in drought. But I was in a parched

aquifer somewhere underneath Sussex. It is a very serious situation. The

underground aquifers are very low. It seemed the only thing to save us

would be a highly unusual long spell of heavy rain.

But you should be careful what you The worst drought since 1976 was

followed by the wettest April-June on record.

I am going to find out what the sign to say are the reasons for

this. I have equipped myself so without

huge globe to put things into perspective.

And I am going to see the people who were badly hit, to explain to

them were it happened. First stop, North Tyneside, hit by

a flash flood in June. It was really surreal. It was a strange

sight, seeing a man in a canoe going down the street. I have come

to the exact same street to tell the residents the reason for the

canoeist. And to do that, you have to look at things with a global

view, which is why I have got this and in particular, we have to talk

about this. This is the jet stream. The jet stream is a ribbon of fast-

moving air, about six miles up in the atmosphere that carries those

weather system its. It is the dividing line between the cold

polar air and the warm air to the south. It heads in the general

direction of the UK because of the rotation of the Earth. It drives

our weather. The reason it is important is because it -- the jet

stream guides and carries storms across the Atlantic to the UK. It

is the first order that determines the UK weather. The at the fact the

jet stream exists doesn't explain canoeing on the streets of North

Tyneside. It was the way the jet stream behave that was the problem.

I know some people in West Sussex who want to know more. I am on my

way to a place called Bracklesham Bay. One night in June, they had a

month's worth of rain. Andy Sussex beach holiday village on the coast

took the brunt. I got caught out in the early hours of Monday morning

and I had to start evacuating people because the chalets were

flooding. Let speak to the workers at the Holiday Park. In winter, the

jet stream is normally here, running across the Atlantic towards

the UK. We would expect to get some spells of rain in winter. But this

time, things were different. So says Len Shaffrey from the

University of Reading. In 2012, the jet stream was much further south

than we would have expected. What it meant was that all the storms

that would normally hit the UK were going into Spain and Portugal. It

was much drier in the UK than normal. If you do not have the jet

stream, carrying wet weather systems to the UK, as it should

have been, in the winter, and further south, we end up dry up.

That is why the end of our winter at the start of this year, there

was so much fear about drought and what would happen if we had a third

dry winter. And then when summer came around, the jet stream was

still too far south. In the summer, we would normally expect the jet

stream to the north of the UK. means that we are in that warm

weather. We get spells of lovely warm sunshine. That is the plan

anyway. But we know that did not happen this year. Rather than the

jet stream being further north and Iceland, the storms that normally

miss us hit the UK, bringing really heavy rainfall. And the flooding

that we saw. The jet stream was in the wrong place for us all year.

That is why all the early long, our weather has not figured the normal

pattern we would expect. Basically the jet stream was in the wrong

place and it got stuck. Add to the scientists have any theories about

why you got stuck? That is the question being asked by one that a

gunman in Devon. After a night of intense rain in the village of

Yealmpton near Plymouth, Alan Frame found himself trapped in his house.

I was leaning out of the bedroom window, just trying to get help. A

man saw May. But the villagers want to know is this. Why was the jet

stream in the wrong position? good position -- question. Twist it

was North America. Their legal. We know that the temperature of the EC

is higher than normal. It has been for quite some time. The theory is

that because Pheasey is warmer than normal, the jet stream does not get

that push north and it will end up further south and take those

weather systems across the UK. you influence the origin of the jet

stream, it is a bit like waving a long stick. You can have a big

effect on the bash at the end, moving it away on to the UK.

the interesting thing is we have seen this before in the 1950s.

Where does all the bad weather come from? The North Atlantic sea

temperature went up in the -- in a similar way and that the same time,

there was a corresponding series of wet summers. That is one theory.

Another theory relates to one Arctic sea ice. You may have seen

reports this year about the fact that the sea ice melted to a degree

that we have never recorded before. It was that blow. One suggestion is

that change has led to shift in the position of the jet stream and then

to changes in the kind of weather we get in the UK. But of course

what we really want to know is what are the same as going to be like in

the future? It depends which of those two theories has the most

perfect. It sees the relationship between those two that will

determine what happens next. In principle, if it reverses, it could

be that we flip into the opposite regime and have a hot, dry summers

in a decade or two from now. what if it is the second Theory?

The melting of the Arctic ice, what happens then? We think it is part

of man-made climate change. If it is that that is dominating the

position of the jet stream, then we are kind of going into uncharted

waters. And we are kind of going into a position when they beat the

weather that we are experiencing during the summer might be starting

to change. What a year of whether it has been! The answers lie well

beyond our shores. If the North Atlantic cools down, we might get

sunny summers but it was down to the melting Arctic seas carp -- sea

ice, then we will have to wait and see. Whilst there is uncertainty in

the long-term outlook, tonight's forecast is far easier to predict.

I am preparing be broadcast for Points West receive it. I am

starting to look at the weather stations across my region. Bristol

Airport, they are warning that we could have fog. There is an awful

lot to put into the graphics. It has to be said through 2012, of

course, many people were greatly impacted by the weather that I was

showing here and those impacts were not always felt in the most obvious

of ways. Roger Wilkins is a Somerset beef farmer and a

legendary cider maker. We are situated right for apples. We get

the sun first thing in the morning, to the first thing that might pass

last thing at night. This year, we had the least come before the

blossom. The apples did not have the sun shine on them to make them

grow. The more sunshine, the more sugar content. I should make half

this year. This year I will be lucky to make 10,000 gallons.

Roger's beef business has also been decimated by the weather. His

cows are grass-fed, they raise fresh pasture, March to November,

and eat home-grown hay in the winter. Yet this year, the grass

was in such short supply, that by October, they were already tucking

into their winter feed. And Roger has not been able to grow as much -

- and left of that either. By now, we would have moulded and had two

lots of grass. But as you can see, and it has been like this virtually

since June. I have 25 acres like this. It was going to be the winter

feed for the cows. It is enough to drive farmers to suicide! You get

all this rain every day. There is no let-up. You have to go out and

pound through the mud and water all the time. It makes it hard work.

The summer on the region's sea France has also been hard. Weston's

Hotel and Restaurants Association reported their worst summer ever.

Indeed, the dismal conditions have dented the tourist industry right

across the region. Anthony Bush, who runs says a one-day farm near

Nailsea, is a keen weather watcher. I had been keeping weather records

since I started farming. I have been keeping them every day. By

need to know what is happening on the field. There is no point

sending the Kaiser -- cows out on to a field that has just had two

inches of rain. They will sink up to their ankles in the mud. The

average rainfall we have during the year is a metre. On this year, we

have had 1.3 metres. With over a third more rain this year than

normal, it is not just the visitor numbers that have been affected.

The weather makes everything difficult. This year has been

torrential. The mud in all the paddocks, a lot of the animals will

suffer from bad feet. They have to be kept on the hard standings.

Quite a lot of the larger animals we have here come from warmer

climates. We have on Africa section over there. It has the white rhino.

They would not choose to stand out in the rain. They spend a lot of

time standing inside. The giraffe stands in the doorway. It is not

just giraffe's that head indoors at the first sign of rain. Until this

year, this cricket pitch was a quintessentially idyllic location

for England's national game. But this year, the rain has well and

truly stopped play. Phil Carter, chairman of the Cotswold Cricket

Association, is visiting Cricklade's groundsman, who has

been gamely battling the elements all season. How many of the Games

have you actually managed to play? I think in total, we should have

played 38 and we have managed to get 15. It has been pretty

horrendous, considering last year we managed to play every game.

has had a fairly major impact on the finances as well. We have seen

about a 35 % increase -- decrease in finance. The weather also puts

the game under a cloud. We had a period from about June where we we

did not play cricket for six weeks. There were lots of force them about,

how can we actually have a league champion if so few games have been

played? Cirencester's pitch may be less precarious than Cricklade's

but with so many games cancelled, players are just drifting away from

grassroots cricket and that is the very foundation of our national

summer game. There is a fear that without the grassroots, the game

could wither away. Throughout the district, you have loads of side

that tart one by one man and his dog, so to speak. They have really

struggled getting sides together. There comes a point in time where

they just say, I cannot be doing what does. The distinct possibility

of village clubs closing is prompting a debate about the future

of the traditional game. village clubs are very important to

cricket. We have so many rural cricket clubs across the country.

They are the heartbeat of many of the committees. The worry is we do

not want to lose people from the game. What we tried to do is ensure

that there are alternative versions of the game of cricket to key

people going. If the weather remains the same and we have the

same problems that the weather has caused this year, we will see us

losing cricket clubs within the county and across the country. And

that is huge. Once they are lost, they will be lost forever. You are

watching Points West. Rots still to come on the programme, including a

full round up of the weather -- locked. It has gone to the fog that

forms the headlines for the next 24 hours. I have been enthusiastic

about whether since I was a little boy. I remember being amazed by

huge thunderstorms are being equally excited by the power of a

full-on westerly gale. But when I am doing this job, I am conscious

of the fact that the impact of the weather I am showing each night can

be very profoundly felt by people on the ground. Elsewhere, the low

cloud possibly showing some signs of wanting to break up. Certainly

quite chilly. Eight Celsius in some In Britain, the weather is often

considered as near small-talk but I believe and especially having

witnessed the weather in its -- and its impacts during 2012, that it is